diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudJSONFacetSKG.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudJSONFacetSKG.java
index 35f23d082af..9a8c2194e12 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudJSONFacetSKG.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudJSONFacetSKG.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
+import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Random;
@@ -330,11 +331,13 @@ public class TestCloudJSONFacetSKG extends SolrCloudTestCase {
       assertNotNull("null facet results?", facetResponse);
       assertEquals("numFound mismatch with top count?",
                    rsp.getResults().getNumFound(), ((Number)facetResponse.get("count")).longValue());
-      if (0 == rsp.getResults().getNumFound()) {
-        // when the query matches nothing, we should expect no top level facets
-        expected = Collections.emptyMap();
-      }
+
+      // Note: even if the query has numFound=0, our explicit background query domain should
+      // still force facet results
+      // (even if the background query matches nothing, that just means there will be no
+      // buckets in those facets)
       assertFacetSKGsAreCorrect(maxBucketsToCheck, expected, baseParams, facetResponse);
+      
     } catch (AssertionError e) {
       throw new AssertionError(initParams + " ===> " + topNamedList + " --> " + e.getMessage(), e);
     } finally {
@@ -390,6 +393,18 @@ public class TestCloudJSONFacetSKG extends SolrCloudTestCase {
         }
       }
     }
+    
+    { // make sure we don't have any facet keys we don't expect
+      // a little hackish because subfacets have extra keys...
+      final LinkedHashSet expectedKeys = new LinkedHashSet(expected.keySet());
+      expectedKeys.add("count");
+      if (0 <= actualFacetResponse.indexOf("val",0)) {
+        expectedKeys.add("val");
+        expectedKeys.add("skg");
+      }
+      assertEquals("Unexpected keys in facet response",
+                   expectedKeys, actualFacetResponse.asShallowMap().keySet());
+    }
   }
 
   /**